Bukayo Saka: Saka The Net

[Geofranco]

Been pretty crap for a while now outside of that Bayern goal. What no rotational option does to a mf over a long season i guess? Ran out of steam last season too.

Finally a reasonable take. It's no coincidence that his form has fallen off like 4 seasons in a row near the end of the season. He has been asked to carry Arsenal since he was 19 years old. He is clearly not the most naturally gifted player, but has done excellent with the talent he was blessed with and can only improve.

 

[Dennis_Bergkamp_10]

Been hearing he’s tired for 1 year. He’s crap.

He's not crap but I agree with the tired-excuse. Every time the players fail to do something noteworthy they are either tired, overplayed or injured.

The game after they score three goals and all is fine again.

 

[DanDare]

Been hearing he’s tired for 1 year. He’s crap.

Keep your head lol

He's very good but he's hasn't been great this season. One of the under performers despite the numbers imo

 

[Riou]

Those guys played with actual strikers. The fact that our two strikers started today and we couldn’t score and no one is really surprised tells you everything. This team is crying for a striker

Today showed the difference between a top striker and an ok one when both got played through

The striker thing is fair I guess, but to counter that Arteta wants our forward to be like a Firmino (who only got 9 league goals when they won the title) and our wingers to be the goalscorers and for him to do all their dirty work, and Martinelli and Saka haven't quite stepped up for us enough this season in key moments like that...you could easily look at it that way.

It's amazing we have scored so many goals as we have this season, as pretty much none of our players have any real composure in front of goal

 

[krengon]

numbers flattering his season, performance wise he can do much better than what we've seen. If he's struggling with lingering injury issues we need to deal with it asap, but euros coming up and he's not gonna want to miss that :/

 

[jaystewart]

The disrespect he gets is criminal. He is our best player by a considerable margin... so what does this say about everybody else?

 

[Sammy1887]

The disrespect he gets is criminal. He is our best player by a considerable margin... so what does this say about everybody else?

Is he though? Probably in your head. Rice, Saliba are easily bigger talents.

 

[Maybe]

I'd say he is a victim of the general incompetence we have in our forward line, we don't have anyone on the left, and our CF isn't someone who will contribute enough (at least not for what our ambitions are).

I know Trossard contributes but he never plays full time so basically we need Saka to perform every single game, which clearly isn't happening.

 

[Trilly]

He's not crap but I agree with the tired-excuse. Every time the players fail to do something noteworthy they are either tired, overplayed or injured.

The game after they score three goals and all is fine again.

This, this and this again. He plays comparable minutes to his peers, it’s an easily disprovable excuse but one that’s always used for the favourites.

Saka will probably turn in some good performances this season and in the euros and suddenly he won’t be tired. People were saying he was tired at the start of this season ffs.

Also agree with @krengon that despite his genuinely world class numbers a world class player would be playing better on a regular basis but I’m not worried about that because if you take a step back what he’s doing for a player his age is far ahead of the curve. He’s the starboy but he shouldn’t be the star man of this team. That’s on Mikel/Edu for not having that player.

Saka’s just not the straight up world class player that Arsenal fans inflated him to be, ofc now people turn on him for not meeting those expectations.

 

[jaystewart]

Is he though? Probably in your head. Rice, Saliba are easily bigger talents.

I am not sure what you mean by 'talents'. It is such a meaningless word really, except for in your head. Arsenal fans were sold dreams about having a young talented team under Wenger. A fiction.

I am talking about who wins us points... if you recall, we had more points this time last season than we did now and we didn't even have Rice. He pushed us on clearly Ødegaard and Martinelli have not contributed half as much as they did last season yet Saka has already exceeded last years contributions and there is a bucket load of games left.

 

[Rasmi]

The striker thing is fair I guess, but to counter that Arteta wants our forward to be like a Firmino (who only got 9 league goals when they won the title) and our wingers to be the goalscorers and for him to do all their dirty work, and Martinelli and Saka haven't quite stepped up for us enough this season in key moments like that...you could easily look at it that way.

It's amazing we have scored so many goals as we have this season, as pretty much none of our players have any real composure in front of goal

Has Arteta ever said I want my strikers to be like frimino and low scorers? Pep signed Haaland and Klopp signed Nunez. I guess some people would say they don’t want real 9s before that. Arteta would love a reliable goalscorer. Every manager in the world would. No one would prefer to rely goals from wingers rather than a striker. It just makes no sense

 

[Geofranco]

The striker thing is fair I guess, but to counter that Arteta wants our forward to be like a Firmino (who only got 9 league goals when they won the title) and our wingers to be the goalscorers and for him to do all their dirty work, and Martinelli and Saka haven't quite stepped up for us enough this season in key moments like that...you could easily look at it that way.

It's amazing we have scored so many goals as we have this season, as pretty much none of our players have any real composure in front of goal

I would say Trossard is the best finisher on the team. Plus I don't think it's fair for Arteta to put that type of pressure on Martinelli and Saka at 22. Both are not generational talents like young Rooney and Cristiano. Even Salah was in his mid 20s before he started performing at the level he is known for.

 

[#254]

EdTeta need to just go all out and get Killian.... This boy is not ready to carry the team on his shoulders atm!

 

[TheEliteMaster100_]

This, this and this again. He plays comparable minutes to his peers, it’s an easily disprovable excuse but one that’s always used for the favourites.

Saka will probably turn in some good performances this season and in the euros and suddenly he won’t be tired. People were saying he was tired at the start of this season ffs.

Also agree with @krengon that despite his genuinely world class numbers a world class player would be playing better on a regular basis but I’m not worried about that because if you take a step back what he’s doing for a player his age is far ahead of the curve. He’s the starboy but he shouldn’t be the star man of this team. That’s on Mikel/Edu for not having that player.

Saka’s just not the straight up world class player that Arsenal fans inflated him to be, ofc now people turn on him for not meeting those expectations.

People don't talk about his corners inflating his chance creating stats aswell. Even last season if you'd take that away, Ødegaard eclipses him in progression stats.

 

[Riou]

Has Arteta ever said I want my strikers to be like frimino and low scorers? Pep signed Haaland and Klopp signed Nunez. I guess some people would say they don’t want real 9s before that. Arteta would love a reliable goalscorer. Every manager in the world would. No one would prefer to rely goals from wingers rather than a striker. It just makes no sense

Just the way he uses his CF, he always prefers them linking play more than anything else...been like this since he first took over, just his preferred style.

He had prime Auba, one of the best poachers ever...and still didn't tweak the way we play to suit him, just put him wide and let Laca do the dog work up top.

 

[Geofranco]

This, this and this again. He plays comparable minutes to his peers, it’s an easily disprovable excuse but one that’s always used for the favourites.

Saka will probably turn in some good performances this season and in the euros and suddenly he won’t be tired. People were saying he was tired at the start of this season ffs.

Also agree with @krengon that despite his genuinely world class numbers a world class player would be playing better on a regular basis but I’m not worried about that because if you take a step back what he’s doing for a player his age is far ahead of the curve. He’s the starboy but he shouldn’t be the star man of this team. That’s on Mikel/Edu for not having that player.

Saka’s just not the straight up world class player that Arsenal fans inflated him to be, ofc now people turn on him for not meeting those expectations.

My question is who ever called Saka a world class player?? I'm being serious, I don't know when that trend started. Is it an English media trend thing or just Arsenal fans desperate for a world class player? I don't live in England or follow British media at all. He just looks like a good young player still developing. I don't think he is a generational talent, but I definitely believe he can become even more devastating than he currently is. I honestly do not believe Arteta is getting the best out of Saka. It's kinda like Rooney with Ferguson, yes he was good and put up decent numbers, but the Rooney I saw at Everton was something special. I honestly felt he never fulfilled his potential and was used to make other talents look better because of his versatility (Ronaldo, Van Nistelrooy and later on RVP). The one season when Rooney got to be the main man, he was incredible before he inevitably got injured. Which was another thing that took away from his potential, also poor lifestyle choices.

 

[Geofranco]

People don't talk about his corners inflating his chance creating stats aswell. Even last season if you'd take that away, Ødegaard eclipses him in progression stats.

Isn't Ødegaard the main playmaker on the team? I would expect him to be the most creative by far

 

[Rasmi]

Just the way he uses his CF, he always prefers them linking play more than anything else...been like this since he first took over, just his preferred style.

He had prime Auba, one of the best poachers ever...and still didn't tweak the way we play to suit him, just put him wide and let Laca do the dog work up top.

Arteta is a manager with 4 year experience who got a squad he had nothing to do with. The idea he has such a clear views on football makes no sense imo. Again he has never talked about his philosophy of a striker and the only trophy he won as manager was because of a pure striker who carried his attack to success

The idea he wouldn’t want a more natural striker is just people making it up. Same way how he wants his fullback to always be inverted and used flat four for weeks. This is the manager who went to city and defended with everything, yet he has unremovable views on strikers. Not buying it

 

[Geofranco]

The disrespect he gets is criminal. He is our best player by a considerable margin... so what does this say about everybody else?

The question is should Saka be the best player on a title contending team? I don't think he is ready for that burden yet. RVP wasn't ready till his late 20s and he was more naturally gifted. This season, I believe Rice and Ødegaard have been better. Also Big Gabi, Saliba and Ben White have been very good throughout the season.

 

[Thrice]

The problem isn't Saka. The problem is our inability at times to take advantage of the space he creates by other teams constantly doubling on him. Of course he will struggle at times always facing two defenders.
Look what he did to Sheffield United in the first half when Wilder decided for whatever reason not to put two players against him.